The association's secretary, Greg Davies, says about 1,500 police shifts each week are taken up with supervising prisoners rather than active duty.

"They're not prison officers, they're not caterers, they're not wet nurses, they are police officers and they're being expected, as they are always expected, to pick up the slack for other government departments and enough's enough," he said.

Victoria's Attorney-General Robert Clark denied the judicial system is in crisis and says are courts are working extremely well.

"They're reducing their waiting lists, they're introducing reforms such as the next-day committal mentions in the County Court; things are moving forward rather than moving backwards," he said.